


To Serve and (Ass)ist

by shesaidnomaam



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:22:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29385516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shesaidnomaam/pseuds/shesaidnomaam
Summary: Reader is the former leader of a European SHIELD base. She is sent to the US to aid in their rebuilding after several years of chaos. Her old rival, Maria Hill is none too happy to see her.
Relationships: Maria Hill/Reader
Kudos: 15





	To Serve and (Ass)ist

SHIELD had finally reached a tipping point. They were ready to admit that they needed serious help and copious amounts of restructuring. Favors were being called, and money was being scrounged from couch seats in order to pay for the talent needed to repair the massive agency. Officers and agents were being traded like athletes. If a person’s expertise was needed at a particular branch, that agent was expected to leave without a timetable. No one knew when they were to return to their actual lives. Some packed heavily just in case.

As was typical, the US bases needed the most help. South Africa had been hit hard, but they hadn’t been spread as thin as the bases in the US. So many buildings, but there were not enough leaders in any of them. As each day came, so did the news that someone was being sent to another base. You would breathe a sigh of relief every time you left the building for the day. But you knew your call was coming. You were useful, resourceful, a top academy graduate, and you were a consummate professional who got the job done. Of course, they would shove you somewhere else.

The day the call came, you dragged your feet. Washington D.C, that was your assignment. You’d hoped it would have been New York or California, but no. You were going to attempt to fix the organization’s headquarters, the root of the strangling fig that was suffocating everyone else. It made sense, of course, you had a history with the HQ. You’d scraped your knuckles there early in your career. Going to D.C sounded like you were going backward. You’d been given level 8 clearance in London, and you were being sent to help reestablish the organization as a whole - something you were completely under-qualified for.

It was hard to know if you should be flattered, or if you were the best choice in a selection of ill-fitting pants.

There was a slight silver-lining, you would get to see some familiar faces. Most of those faces would be welcome sights to see. You had a lot of memories running through the halls of SHIELD, chasing information, delivering warnings - sometimes to the wrong person, it was a large base.

With the pleasant reunions would come the ones you’d rather avoid. Maria Hill, the Deputy Director of SHIELD, had likely fought against your transfer. It was slightly narcissistic to consider, but you had imagined it, several times. In a way, seeing her get bent out of shape over your presence would be a mark in the ‘pro’ column. However, having to then work with Maria would be several marks in the 'con’ column.

A former classmate and friend, the pair of you had once been on better terms. Together, you could have solved a number of SHIELD’s internal and even external issues. You needed a science geek, you always felt like there needed to be a third science nerd in the mix. Then, you would have been unstoppable. Maria excelled in the operations department, and you shined in communications. It never felt like a competition, until it was. The change was sudden, but you felt it instantly. Your relationship with Maria only faltered after that and it never recovered.

In fact, you became rivals, as childish as it felt to think. Maria seemed to see it that way first. Perhaps she felt differently, but it ended up the same regardless of who felt first.

She was allowed to be bothered by your presence. You would have been by hers if the roles were reversed. You had a lower level of clearance, one level - not too shabby on your part, and you were going to be consulting a foreign base on how to rebuild and restructure. You would have loathed seeing Maria in the same position. That didn’t mean you’d take her bullshit, however. She could pout in private, but in public, she had to remember that you were SHIELD’s to control just as she was. If you’d had a choice, you wouldn’t have chosen D.C.

The day you arrived at the headquarters, you were greeted by some younger agents. You’d been just like them once, eager to impress any new person. It was smart, you got remembered that way. Some people thought it was like kissing ass, but while they were looking down on being memorable, you were being remembered.

“Did you have a nice flight?” One of the agents asked.

Small talk was cheap, but it served a purpose. “I did, thank you, Agent?”

The young woman showed you her badge. “Jimenez, ma'am,” she replied.

You repeated the name to commit it to memory. “I see that we’re not walking to the Director’s office,” you noticed.

“Yes, Deputy Director Hill asked to speak with you first.”

“I bet she did,” you answered with a sigh.

“Ma'am?” Agent Jimenez asked.

You shook your head, telling the poor thing to dismiss any concerns. It wasn’t she that you were displeased with, but rather the control freak that wanted to play bridge troll between you and Fury.

At the door, you spared a knock. Despite the fact that you’d once seen Maria eat day-old and unrefrigerated pizza, you still owed her the professional respect of knocking. Her tone was short when she beckoned you in.

She stood up, jaw clenched like you’d already insulted her ego. Maria nodded to your accompaniment and dismissed them. You sat across from her desk and immediately began snooping with your eyes.

“Don’t do that,” Maria instructed as she closed her office door.

“Do what?”

“Try to study me through my office. You know I wouldn’t have anything too personal in here.”

“Then why do you have your track medal from eleventh grade?” You nodded to the bookshelf behind her desk. Even with the high-tech finery SHIELD had to offer, some offices still held actual bookshelves. And there on Maria’s bookshelf, hidden but still on display was a track medal you knew she’d won in high school. She’d told you it was the first time she knew she could make herself proud without the help of someone else.

“I didn’t have anywhere else to put it,” Maria lied. You had to turn your head, you felt your eyes roll. It was unbecoming of a person with your status to be seen rolling their eyes at a deputy director, but she was so obvious.

“Are you going to tell me why I’m here and not in Director Fury’s office?” You asked.

“I wanted to know if we had anything to discuss.”

You figured she was feeling you out. Maria didn’t want you making her look bad. Clearly, she didn’t think you were as professional as she. She did like to underestimate you. Maybe it made her feel better about herself to downplay your professionalism and skill.

“So you brought me here to show off your position?”

“That’s not what I’m doing,” Maria said as she leaned back in her chair. “I have a reputation that I’ve cultivated and I want to know that you’re not here to challenge that.”

“I’m here because I was told to be. I didn’t put in for a transfer; I liked my life.”

“It sounds like you think of this as a punishment,” Maria replied.

There was paranoia brewing in your stomach. It felt as though the Deputy Director was baiting you into an argument. Surely Maria Hill wasn’t so petty that she would try to manipulate you into making an asshole of yourself. Still, you were insulted by the near-accusation. Maria was remembering you as you were fresh from the academy. She had no business making assumptions about the woman you’d become. You’d kept up with her work, for the most part. Apparently, you were not as worthy of a rival as you thought.

“Wouldn’t you? You worked hard for your position. How would you feel if you were uprooted to fix someone else’s mistakes?”

She didn’t like your question, if only because she clearly took responsibility for the state of SHIELD. If you cared about her feelings, you’d tell her that it wasn’t her fault alone. SHIELD’s turmoil had been planned before Maria was even born. She’d just inherited a pit of lions.

“Maria, I’m here to do a job so that I can get back to my actual job. You know why they sent me. There’s no reason to feel intimidated by my presence.” Oh, you were throwing salt in a wound and you didn’t care. You’d started earnestly, but you couldn’t help the last-minute dig.

“Why would I be intimidated by someone who ranks below me?”

“You tell me,” you replied. She was silent, all of the tension in the world found in her jaw. You decided to be productive rather than petty. “What happened to your comms department?”

Maria exhaled and closed her eyes. “HYDRA was all over it. They were all over everything, but that department got hit the hardest. Field agents were compromised, even students in the academy. We’ve got next to no field agents that haven’t been made.”

“What does Fury want to do?”

“He wants to get new bodies, recruit a lot of fresh blood,” Maria replied.

“And you?”

“I’m not willing to trust anyone new.”

Of course, Maria would take that approach. It was a wise approach, but you knew it had been the easiest one for her to take. HYDRA had given her a reason to justify her lifelong distrust of strangers.

“You’ve got to pull people from other departments, move students around. Are there any former field agents that weren’t compromised?”

“Not many,” Maria sighed.

“I’ll need a list of those that weren’t. Even if Fury gets his way, that takes time. I can’t wait for you both to come up with a better way to weed out informants; I need field agents. Field agents are the backbone of SHIELD.”

Maria scoffed, “You can’t say that any one department is more important than the other.”

“Did I say that?” You shot back. “Field agents make everything else possible. They’re out there risking their lives to get information that you need to do your job. Everything SHIELD does is based on information and data collected by those agents. I realize that you think that all agents need to be gun-toting machines, but there’s an art to what the comms department does, and you’d be wise to remember that, Deputy Director.” You wanted Maria to remind herself just who she had to help. She oversaw everyone, not just the operations department she loved so dearly.

She was going to reply, but she stopped. With an elbow on her desk, Maria rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know how to talk to him,” she admitted quietly. “And I can tell he doesn’t know how to talk to me.”

“Then that’s where I come in.”

She looked relieved, even if she was trying to guard her emotions against you. Maria could tell you that she thought your field was less important, or easier, but she often failed where you excelled. Talking was not her specialty, it could have been, but she didn’t apply any effort into talking with someone else.

You were a talker. You weren’t just a talker either, you were a listener and a logical thinker who considered the human, or alien, element. Maria Hill needed you. So she was going to need to learn how to work with you again.

And you were going to have to accept that although you knew the right buttons to push, you didn’t have to push them.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted as a part of my Pilot Week 'event' on my Tumblr. This series as well as seven other series were created based on reader surveys! For more information, check out my Tumblr!


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